A week before Bridj launched its Coolidge Corner-to-Harvard Square “Wicked Smaht” route, the pop-up bus service’s parent corporation, GroupZOOM Inc., raised a $1 million funding round. But what this means for the Cambridge-based, innovative transportation company remains unclear.
“We’re not ready to comment on [funding] at this time,” said Bridj CEO Matthew George, 24, in a phone interview with BostInno.
GroupZOOM disclosed the loan in a regulatory filing earlier this month. According to the filing, there’s just one investor in the round.
The filing lists Jill Preotle and Lee Bouyea as directors of the company. Preotle, a Boston-based angel, has invested in big-name companies Zipcar, TaskRabbit and ezCater, among others. Bouyea, a former eBay employee from Vermont, is an investor with FreshTracks Capital and an advisor with Faraday.
GroupZOOM filed the Form D, the same day BostInno reported on the launch of the “Wicked Smaht” route (see: link at the top).
On Aug. 18, Bridj buses began making morning trips between Coolidge Corner in Brookline and Harvard Square in Cambridge. The company had already applied for a Boston jitney license. District Councilor Timothy McCarthy has said he would recommend approval of Bridj’s three initial test routes “soon.” As the company expands, McCarthy said, Bridj would have to secure additional licenses.
Bridj has been trying to do just that in Cambridge. On the other side of the Charles the application process hasn’t gone quite as smoothly.
In a memorandum dated Aug. 20, the Cambridge Transportation Department recommended limiting Bridj’s operations in that city, specifically along eight potential routes rife with taxi stands and MBTA stations. The routes Bridj proposed adding in Cambridge were deemed “not accessible” by the Cambridge Licensing Commission, which receives recommendations from the Traffic, Parking and Transportation Department.
Despite the potential blow to his company’s operations, George doesn’t appear too worried about the future of Bridj in Cambridge.
He – and a few prominent Cambridge officials – were caught off guard by the Transportation Department’s memo. George told BostInno he and his team had been working “closely” with Cambridge Mayor David Maher and Councilor Leland Cheung for the past three months, and the memo came as a “huge shock” to all parties.
“We would have appreciated a heads up [about the memo],” George said.
In a statement following the memo from the Transportation Department, Mayor Maher said that “the City of Cambridge, like many other cities, needs to develop transportation strategies that better respond to these emerging transportation services.” The people who should be sitting down to discuss said “strategies” – Bridj, for example – appear to have been kept in the dark.
License Commission Chairwoman Andrea Spears Jackson told the Boston Business Journal that Cambridge officials are planning to hold a meeting next month to discuss the transportation department’s comments on Bridj’s route proposals. This, however, is news to George, who told BostInno Tuesday afternoon that Bridj had never been informed directly about a future meeting; in fact, George said that when the company called the Cambridge parking department, inquiring what steps needed to be taken after the transportation department’s memo, a person who picked up the phone on the other end said he or she “didn’t know.”
“[Transportation officials] are talking to everyone but us,” George said. “We’re a little concerned at this point.”
He added that he remains “incredibly confident” in Cambridge’s “democratically elected leadership,” and is hopeful Bridj’s future operations will get back on track. But, as George himself noted, Cambridge’s beef with Bridj is “exactly what happened with Uber.”
Bridj has secured nearly $4 million in funding and has 25 employees currently working out of its Cambridge offices. While its issues with the City of Cambridge might be causing some concern behind closed doors, Bridj, in the eyes of the public, appears committed to expansion – quietly raising funds, while it’s turning to the public for help deciding which South Boston route it should open up next.
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Correction: The original version of this story said that Bridj makes morning and evening trips from Coolidge Corner to Harvard Square. That was incorrect; Bridj currently only runs morning service.
